Do genes determine mental health?

[Creation]

Let me lay my cards down and say that my entire family suffers from mental illness, some quite severe, and we have been teetering on the poverty line for my entire life. Going without has been the name of the game, and while I have never been starving I know what it is like to feel hungry on a regular basis, to be unsure if I will have a roof over my head next month on a regular basis, to not have any of the things that my friends have, etc. So this is quite personal to me and I have done a lot of thinking about it.

 

Bring up children in loving environment. Avoid prejudice, exploitation and manipulation which leaves people in abject poverty. Bring a spiritual agenda into cultural life.

 

Why is this a band aid? In fact it is only certain mechanisms which are 'left wing' - whatever system which would deliver these three would get my vote.

When I read the quote in question I put the emphasis on a different clause:

 

"Instead, the Human Genome Project is rapidly providing a scientific basis for the political left. Childhood maltreatment, economic inequality and excessive materialism seem the main determinants of mental illness. State-sponsored interventions, like reduced inequality, are the most likely solutions."

 

Look, why I called it a band-aid on a gunshot wound is because the problem is not material. It is on the level of unconscious beliefs, emotional blockages, etc. The level of a lack of virtue, virtues like patience and tolerance. These are the things (and lack of things) that are passed down from parent to child despite the best intentions of parents, teachers, counselors, etc. When I see a parent being unloving to their child, I often get the impression that the parent genuinely does not know how to be loving to a child. They are as loving as they can be, but somehow it doesn't come through.

 

So when the people propose that the government shuffling money around will solve problems that monetary troubles is a symptom, not a cause, of, I liken it to a band-aid for a gunshot wound. It's the same situation as Western medicine: treating symptoms while the cause lingers. There is also the idea of bettering society through education (a far older idea than wealth redistribution), but until people really understand the cause of the problem and what can be done about it, all the education, or therapy, or whatever, in the world is fundamentally misguided.

 

So what can be done? If a society does not have leaders or elders that understand these things, nothing can be done, at least not on the level of the whole society. It is up to individuals to try to raise their own consciousness and develop their own virtue, and then serve in whatever way they can in their community.

[Apech]

 

 

So what can be done? If a society does not have leaders or elders that understand these things, nothing can be done, at least not on the level of the whole society. It is up to individuals to try to raise their own consciousness and develop their own virtue, and then serve in whatever way they can in their community.

 

Sure _ I personally prefer the instinct in political leaders which suggests that it is their duty to care about people and look after their welfare. But that's just me - I am not suggesting that this necessarily is some kind of socialism - but I would suggest we don't have the kind of leaders you describe but rather ones who are enslaved to vested interest groups.

[NeiChuan]

I like this:

 

 

 

Just to be controversial - I would also suggest that ADHD is a kind of scam which labels the impact and effect of poor parenting (by which I mean the selfish withdrawal of affection) as a disease. I'm not saying kids don't suffer but I am saying because they are not valued or loved they are lost within themselves and cannot settle their minds. They look outside all the time for something that will satisfy them and of course cannot find it ....

 

Hm yea I agree with that for the most part. there are people with "actual" ADHD. Its not nearly what people in the general public will describe as ADHD. You really can't hold a conversation with someone that has it, its practically as if they dont have the memory to continue a simple or important conversation.

 

Although being loud in class seems to be the new "symptom" for ADHD. ADHD to most pharma companies is just another drug to push, and sadly there bullshit as dripped into our schools.

[Sunya]

[Ninpo-me-this-ninjutsu-me-that]

Genetics or not, how does one quantify sanity?

 

It seems to me that mental illness is only considered mental illness when you can no longer function within society, ie. get and keep a job/make and keep friends and so on.

 

But by degree the majority of people in the world IMV could be regarded as mentally ill, or having some form of serious issues due to societies structure putting the majority of people way out of balance.

 

It's not natural for anyone to work 8 hours a day, at least at a job they dislike, like perhaps the majority of individuals in the world do. What amount of repression is needed for this? And what knock-on effects does it have for those around them, spouses, children family and friends; this in turn effects others connected with them.

 

Personally I believe manufactured society to be totally to blame, in one form or another. We wouldn't have these problems if we were still hanging out under the mango trees spending a couple of hours a day picking fruit and catching the odd rabbit here and there. And if we did by chance have some so called 'mentally ill' people, we'd probably treat them the same as the native American Indians did and consider them divine and integrate them into the tribe.

[Non]

Everything is idiomaterial. Meaning both non-physical/spiritual/energetic (idio) and material.

 

One should always look at this from a balanced perspective, not purely spiritual, or mental, or psychological, or energetic, unless it fits or is appropriate. Neither purely material, unless it fits or is appropriate.